


That Time Back When We First Met

by Sheyshen



Series: The Hawke Legacy [7]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Pre-Relationship, if I continue this I'll add more, the way to a sith's heart is through being a klutz apparently
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-13
Updated: 2017-06-13
Packaged: 2018-11-13 14:23:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11186964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheyshen/pseuds/Sheyshen
Summary: A little backstory for my Sith Marauder and her husband, a Republic Commando, and how they met.





	1. Chapter 1

                Run. That was the only thing on his mind as Mikael rushed across the swampy fields of Taris. He could hear the rakghouls behind him, practically feel their fetid breath on the back of his neck as he slipped for the fifth time on a slime covered... something. He wasn't sure, and he sure as hell wasn't about to stop and check what it was.

                He banked to his left, cutting through one of the hundreds of destroyed buildings that littered the planet, hoping against hope that there wouldn't be more of the mindless creatures in there. The sound of the growls behind him were answered with more in front, and Mikael cursed his luck as he skidded to a halt mere inches from a particularly large red rakghoul. Swearing, he turned and bolted out the nearest doorway, back into the treacherous wilds of the planet, praying that the monsters behind him wouldn't catch up and eat him. Or turn him into one of them. He didn't want to find out which was the worse fate to have.

                As he ran he couldn't help but wonder what he could've done to land himself on this shithole of a planet on his first deployment since joining the Republic military. Sure he joined to follow in his father's footsteps, and to possibly find the man, but he had expected to be used to fight the good fight against the Empire, not try to take back a planet that had been leveled hundreds of years prior. Of what use was a planet that had creatures like this prowling around and killing everything in reach.

                His father, James Reiner, was the best of the best of the Republic military. He had more medals than Mikael had been able to count, and was heralded as a hero before the treaty had been signed. Mikael could recall every war story that his father had told him as a child, and looked forward to when he could enlist and make a difference just like his father. But then one day James was shipped out and never returned. No details, no explanation, just a letter from his CO that he'd gone missing and that they'd do what they could to find him.

                That was five years ago, and now... Now Mikael was running, not for honor, not for glory. But running for his life. He could've been like his sister, joined the SIS, but that never appealed to him. He wanted to be like his father, be a soldier and have a big loving family. And now he was sixteen and was convinced he was about to die.

                Leaping over some pieces of what was likely a long destroyed ship, Mikael was able to see the edges of a town down the hill. He couldn't place whether it was Imperial or Republic, but at the moment, he didn't care. The treaty was still in place, and anything was better than being eaten alive. He took another turn into a building, praying that it would have an intact staircase. From room to room he ran, the snarls of the rakghouls still much too close for comfort. He would've felt almost flattered if it had been just about anything else chasing him with such a singular focus.

                Reaching what should've been the stairwell of the large building, all Mikael found was a few destroyed steps and a long drop. He stopped himself just short of tumbling into the dark hole, and ran back in the direction he had come, deciding that he had better chances rushing through the monsters than he did of surviving that fall.

                He  charged the rakghouls, hoping that maybe they could be surprised by his change in tactics. No such luck, as he reached the first he had to change direction suddenly or else he'd've lost his head. Even still the rakghoul swung out it's arm and took his helmet right off his head, leaving a scratch on his cheek in the process. His armor protected him from most of the rest of the attacks from the remaining rakghouls as he muscled his way through, for once grateful for his larger build. Pushing past the last of them he bolted back through the building, desperately looking for a way out. He was both strong and fast, but he knew he wouldn't be able to keep running much longer.

                He had lost his weapon early in the confrontation with the pack, managing to have picked off two of them before his cannon had been ripped from his grip. He had used a small blaster to try and scare off the creatures while he ran, but he had lost the weapon the second time he had slipped. If there had been only two or three left he would've tried fighting them with his fists, but he had counted at _least_ five when he had forced his way through the pack.

                He went from room to room, finally exiting out of one that had a soft decline into the swampy terrain he already hated. Sprinting down he could see the town that he had spotted earlier, and turned to head toward it. He glanced back, finding the rakghouls still hot on his heels, and cursed as his foot caught a root and he fell forward. Twisting, he turned his body to land on his back, feeling a sharp pain flare through him as whatever he landed on gave way beneath him and something shot up and sliced through his armor.

                A trap, after everything, he fell onto a trap. He cursed, feeling the pain flood his senses. He could still hear the rakghouls as they approached, albeit, more slowly. He closed his eyes, feeling the pain ebb as he fell unconscious, the last thing he heard was the hiss of a lightsaber before everything went silent.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter Nora, the hero of the day

                Nora sighed, she hated this place already. She had gone to Taris after a contact had alerted her to a possible sighting of her brother Trey. But so far... Nothing, absolutely nothing. She headed out of the fort that acted as the Empire's on planet base of operations, and headed out into the wilds. Her contact had said that there was a pirate who matched the description of her twin, sand colored hair, gold eyes, sith tattoo across the forehead. It'd be hard to mistake him in a crowd, and Nora was certain she'd be able to find him if she saw him, even though she hadn't seen him since they had been attacked by pirates over a decade prior.

                She touched the scar that went across her right eye, gently rubbing the damaged tissue. Ten years was a long time. She had been six years old, as had Trey, and they had just left on vacation with their parents. One day she had been a happy little girl on living in a large luxurious home on Ziost, and the next she had watched her parent get tortured to death, lost her brother, and nearly lost her eye.

                Their shuttle had been attacked by pirates as they headed to somewhere...Nora couldn't even recall where they had been headed anymore. They had been taken captive, her parents were both powerful sith lords, and yet they were killed and her brother had been kidnapped. By the time the pirates had begun their torture on her, a Republic patrol had stopped the ship and rescued the surviving passengers that had been on the shuttle with her. She was injured and alone, and the troopers had no clue what to do with the small sith child, so she was left at the Jedi temple. And that's where she had stayed for years.

                For a time she was in the care of the Jedi Knight, Blue Strider, and was close friends with the Knight's daughter Kara. Nora trained and flourished under the Jedi teachings, but her concern over her brother eventually led her away from the temple and back into the arms of the Empire. Months of searching, starting back home on Ziost all the way to today, trudging her way through the muck of Taris.

                Nora snarled as her long coat caught on piece of debris and pulled her from her memories. She unhooked the cloth and fixed her coat, the cloth hugging to her breastplate and flaring out behind her. She looked around, glaring angrily at the surrounding trees and muck. It was quiet, aside from a few far off growls of rakghouls and nexu. She shook her head, she thought she had heard something, but clearly she was mistaken.

                Continuing on, Nora scanned the area with her senses, attempting to locate her brother through the Force, or at least get a hint of whether or not he was on the planet at all. Another sound, this time louder, and definitely not of any of the nearby creatures caught her attention, and she turned to look at a nearby building. Out came a heavily armored man, charging his way down the slope, with a good eight rakghouls right behind him. At that distance, she couldn't make out his face or whether or not he was armed, she could only tell he wore Republic issued armor. Sighing, she headed in the direction of the man, deciding to lend him a hand and at least reduce the number of rakghouls so he'd have a fighting chance.

                She sprinted over, using the Force to pick up speed as he tripped and fell on one of the many traps the Empire had scattered around the area. They were meant to catch any rakghouls that got too close to the base, not that it did any good at the moment. Pulling her lightsabers from her belt, she ignited the pair, and threw them at the oncoming ghouls. The purple blades sliced through the pack, taking out three of them as they returned to Nora's hands. She swung them around in a flourish, took a deep breath, and leapt toward the remaining rakghouls, cutting down two more as she landed. She felt the Force flow through her, the energy invigorating and made her feel almost unstoppable. Three left.

                She spun around, swinging the blades in an arc. Two. She pulled the Force through her, focusing it to her legs and she stomped down, stunning the remaining pair. Again she spun the blades in a flourish, and brought them down mid spin, cutting down the remaining rakghouls. None.

                Nora let out a heavy breath, letting her blade go out, and placed them back on her belt as she turned back to the trap. Approaching the side, she found the prone form of the man she had tried to rescue. Hopping down into the hole, she checked his neck for a pulse, trying to see if he was still alive. He was, she could feel the subtle beating of his heart through the damaged armor under her hand. Taking another deep breath, she reached out through the force, and lifted him carefully off the spikes the covered the bottom of the trap. He was unconscious, but she noticed him flinch when he was lifted up, good, he wasn't completely gone just yet.

                She jumped up to the edge, bringing him down gently on the grass. His wounds were severe, but if she could get him treated, they wouldn't be life-threatening. But the problem was, how was she going to get him to the Imperial base. He was much larger than her, and heavily armored, and even with the Force, she doubted she could carry him the whole way without attracting unwanted attention. She swore, looking around for a camp or something.

                Spotting an abandoned camp not too far away, Nora decided that that would be better than nothing, and carefully lifted the trooper, and brought him over to the camp. There were some supplies left behind, but most of it was picked clean, likely from the pirates that covered the planet. Placing the injured trooper on the single cot against the nearby wall, she dug around looking for anything she could use. There was a lockbox buried in the mud next to the cot. Nora thanked her luck as she broke open the lockbox and pulled out some medical supplies, a few rolls of bandages, a small amount of kolto, and two bacta patches. She assumed the box had been an emergency kit, but it had been forgotten when the owner was chased out. Or killed.

                Pulling off the broken armor, Nora carefully started to tend the wounds on the trooper. The armor was badly dented and bloodied, but had absorbed most of the damage that the rakghouls had caused, but the wounds on his back from the trap were what concerned the sith the most. She rinsed off the wounds with some water from her pack, and placed the two patches on the worse of the wounds. They weren't big enough to cover everything, but it would have to do. Cleaning the rest of the wounds, she kept the kolto handy, but with so little of it she opted to keep to the bacta patches and bandages for her treatment. She was in no way a medical expert, but she had learned how to at least patch herself up over the years.

                The man groaned, as she wrapped the bandages around his midsection, and chest. She had him propped up on his side, taping the last of the bandaging, when he leaned back, looking over his shoulder at her.

                "It's alright, you took a bad fall, but you'll be fine." She tried to sound as soothing as she could, but he clearly noticed her accent as his eyes shot open. He pushed up, trying to sit up, fear clear in his hazel eyes. Nora placed a hand on his shoulder, helping him to a sitting position, taking no offence in his reaction. "Easy, you're wounded."

                His eyes wandered, taking in the woman before him, and locking on the lightsabers at her hip before returning to her face. "You're not a Jedi, are you." The question was more of a statement, and Nora couldn't help but smile.

                "No, not exactly." She had him sit up, and went to his back. "Don't move." She said, and she tightened the bandages and taped them down before he had a chance to react. "There, that should be good until you get back to base." She walked back around and checked the bandages that went across his chest, kneeling down in front of him as she fixed the cloth. "Too tight?" She asked.

                "No. I-it's fine." He took a deep, but ragged breath, "Fine, yeah.... Why?" He winced as he pushed himself up the rest of the way. "Why did you help me?"

                She glanced up at him, and he couldn't help but find her beautiful, her eyes were a steel gray  with a deep scar cutting across the right one, and her brown hair was cut messily and uneven, but there was just something striking about her. She was far from perfect, but to him there was just something about her that took his breath away, and yet she was-

                "Because I'm sith?" She stood up, a smile playing across her face. "Not all of us are 'grrr, murder and mayhem await.' types you know." She laughed as she spoke, "I was a Jedi, still like to think that I am one too, even with all this." She gestured to her armor. "Sometimes you make a choice, you know. And this was the best option I had." She shook her head.

                "Don't regret leaving the order?" He asked.

                She shrugged. "Sometimes, but that happens. I have bigger concerns than whether or not becoming sith was a good choice."

                "Like?"

                "Like getting an injured trooper back to town before he gets too nosy for his own good." She smirked at him, "C'mon big guy."

                "I do have a name." He grumbled as she helped him to his feet, taking care that he wouldn't strain himself as they walked.

                "Don't we all?" She grinned up at him, and he couldn't help but marvel at her again. After he didn't reply she laughed quietly, "Leaving me in suspense? Or do you like me calling you big guy that much?"

                "I-it's Mikael. Mikael Reiner." He stammered, embarrassed that she had caught him so off-guard.

                She smiled at him, once more taking his breath away. "I'm Nora Hawke. It's a pleasure."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally planned to only be these two chapters, but if people would be interested I could continue their story. Either up to when they have their daughter or even past it to when they'll be brought into my other fic. Let me know if you guys would like to read more on these two!


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